Wisconsin DOJ asks judge to pause voter citizenship verification order

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Department of Justice on Monday asked a judge to immediately put on hold his order that would require elections officials to verify the citizenship of all 3.6 million registered Wisconsin voters before the next statewide election in February.

The state justice department, which represents the Wisconsin Elections Commission, is seeking the stay of Friday’s ruling pending an appeal.

The fight over verifying the citizenship status of voters in battleground Wisconsin comes as President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice has sought voter records from at least 19 states, including Wisconsin. Trump’s Justice Department is taking steps to crack down on voter fraud and noncitizen voting, both of which are rare but have been the subject of years of false claims from Trump and his allies.

The Wisconsin lawsuit was filed in August 2024 in the lead-up to the November presidential election by two suburban Milwaukee voters, including a longtime critic of how elections are run in the state.

They sought a court order requiring the Wisconsin Elections Commission and state Department of Transportation to verify the citizenship of all applicants registering to vote. They argued that the state elections commission is failing to investigate unlawful voter registrations and not taking steps to ensure that noncitizens are not voting.

The state justice department argued that there is no requirement or duty under Wisconsin law for the elections commission and transportation department to share and match data to remove non-citizens from the statewide voter list.

Wisconsin law requires voters to certify that they are U.S. citizens but does not require election officials to obtain proof or require voters to present any.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Maxwell ruled on Friday that the elections commission is “violating state and federal statutes by maintaining an election system that potentially allows individuals on to the voter rolls who may not be lawfully entitled to cast a vote in Wisconsin.”

The Wisconsin Elections Commission “is failing in the most basic task of ensuring that only lawful voters make it to the voter roll from where lawful votes are cast,” the judge ruled.

He ordered the elections commission to review the voter rolls before the Feb. 18 spring primary election to determine if anyone who is not a U.S. citizen is registered to vote. He also prohibited accepting any new voter registration request “without verification that the applicant is a U.S. citizen.”

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat who is considering running for governor, argued Monday that the court’s order would “require a massive overhaul of Wisconsin’s voter registration system and the creation of new verification requirements not otherwise provided for by statute.”

Further, the judge’s order does not explain what it would entail to verify that an applicant is a U.S. citizen. Requiring additional documents, like a U.S. passport, will take time to implement, Kaul argued.

“A major modification to Wisconsin’s electronic voter registration process will require months of development and testing before the changes may be deployed,” he said in the request for a stay of the ruling.

Any disabling of the voter registration system while those changes are implemented would violate the rights of others who are trying to register, Kaul argued. The state receives an average of 200 online voter registrations each day, he said.

Attorneys representing the voters who brought the lawsuit did not immediately return emails seeking comment.

A spokeswoman for the state elections commission did not immediately return messages seeking comment.